The Pilot/Feasibility Research Core will advance the Center's aims to increase the cadre of minority nurse researchers and to facilitate the development of faculty and doctoral students conducting research with racial/ethnic minority populations. This will be accomplished primarily through a program of funded pilot studies in which faculty at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) are matched with faculty at Winston Salem State University (WSSU) and North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Faculty and doctoral students will be mcntored in the dcsign and conduct of culturally-sensitive and appropriate research aimed at understanding or reducing health discrepancies in minority populations, particularly African-Americans and Latinos. The objectives of the Pilot Core are as follows: (1) to initiate and fund pilot/feasibility studies related to minority health or health disparities with faculty and/or doctoral students at UNC-Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem State University, and North Carolina Central University, (2) to facilitate the development of funded pilot study investigators in conducting their studies and in building a program of culturally-sensitive research aimed at understanding or reducing health disparities in minority populations, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, (3) to foster collaboration between pilot investigators and the Center's minority community partners to increase the cultural sensitivity and appropriateness of the research and to meet the expressed needs of partner communities, and (4) to foster collaboration between pilot investigators and the Center's minority community partners to increase the cultural sensitivity and appropriateness of the research and to meet the expressed needs of partner communities.